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“He made him wish he was dead,” Grimm said. “He almost got kicked out of Delta Force. If the woman he’d defended hadn’t come forward to tell her side of the story, his career would’ve been over.”
Drake glanced around at the men he’d fought with and shook his head. “Had I known we were having a reunion, I would’ve come sooner.”
“I want each of you to know I would hire you in a heartbeat for my organization, Brotherhood Protectors, but you all have expressed your desire to fire nail guns, not Glocks. I haven’t given up hope that you’ll change your mind, but I respect that you want to try something different. And with that, I’ll hand you over to your new bosses. Molly McKinnon and her fiancé, Parker Bailey, are from the Iron Horse Ranch.” Hank waved a hand toward the man and the woman who’d remained at the drafting table. “They’re the new owners of the Lucky Lady Lodge.”
“For better or worse.” The man took Drake’s hand. “Welcome aboard. I’m here to do the grunt work, just like you guys.” He turned to the woman. “Molly is the brains behind the project.”
Molly shook Drake’s hand. “Glad to meet you. Now, if we could get started…”
He smiled. “Yes, ma’am.”
She turned to the drawings. “We’re in the demolition phase of this project. We have to clean up what was damaged in the mine explosion before we can assess structural damage,” Molly said.
Parker added. “Each man has been assigned different areas to work, not too far from each other in case you run into trouble.”
Molly pointed to the blueprint. “Drake, you’ll take the butler’s pantry and coat closet on the far side of the main dining room. The walls are cracked and crumbling. We need to get behind the drywall to see if the support beams have been compromised. Your goal today is to clear the walls on the mountainside of the rooms and any other walls showing significant damage.”
Parker raised a hand. “I’ll take Drake and Grimm to their locations.”
Molly glanced toward the other three men. “The rest are with me. You’ll find sledgehammers, battery-powered reciprocating saws, gloves and wheelbarrows staged in each of your areas. The power is off, so you’ll have to use the headlamps on your safety helmets. The rooms against the mountain don’t get much natural light.” She handed Drake a helmet with a headlamp. “Thank you all for answering Hank’s call. We needed as many hands as we could get for this project, and sometimes, people are hard to come by in small towns.”
Anxious to get to work, Drake plunked his helmet on his head and followed Parker through the maze of hallways to the back of the lodge. They hadn’t gone far before they had to stop and turn on their headlamps.
Parker continued, explaining what each room was as they passed doorways. He eventually came to a stop in front of a wooden door. “Grimm, this is your assigned area. Judge, yours is the next room. I’ll be two doors down. If something doesn’t feel right, get the hell out. We don’t know exactly how much damage the explosion caused. I’d rather we err on the side of caution. The sooner we see inside the walls, the sooner we can get to work rebuilding.”
“Got it.” Grimm pulled on a pair of gloves, wrapped his hands around the handle of a sledgehammer and nodded. “Nothing like a little demolition to work out all your frustrations. Let’s do this.”
Judge entered the next room and found what he needed to get started. Parker moved on.
Gloves on, Drake grabbed the sledgehammer and went to work knocking big holes in the plaster on the back wall. Piece by piece, he pulled away the plaster and the narrow wooden slats behind it, exposing a couple of feet of the interior beams at a time.
Plaster dust filled the air, making it more and more difficult to see. Judge found face masks in the stack of supplies and pulled one on over his mouth and nose. He’d made it through half the back wall in less than an hour. If he kept up the pace, he’d have that wall done in the next hour. The other walls in the room had only hairline fractures in the plaster. Hopefully, that was a good sign that they hadn’t been damaged to the point they needed to be torn down as well.
One thing was certain; they’d have to wait until the dust settled before they could assess the status of the support beams.
The banging on the wall in the next rooms stopped for a moment.
“Can you see anything?” Grimm called out.
“Not much,” Drake responded. “My headlamp is reflecting off all the dust particles.”
“Same,” Grimm came to stand in the doorway, wearing a mask over his mouth and nose.
“Let the dust settle for a few minutes,” Parker called out.
“Have you had a chance to find a place to live?” Grimm asked.
Drake shook his head, his light swinging right then left, bouncing off the dust in the air. “I just got to town and came straight here.”
“I think there’s room at Mrs. Dottie Kinner’s bed and breakfast where I’m staying. You can follow me there after work and ask her yourself if she’s got another room available.”
“Thanks.” Drake glanced across the room. “I think I can see the wall again.”
Grimm nodded. “Going back to my wall.”
Moments later, the men were slamming their heavy sledgehammers into yet more plaster.
Drake worked on the next four feet of wall, knocking out sheetrock. He grabbed hold of a portion of the drywall and pulled hard. A large portion fell away, exposing a gap between studs that was three feet wide.
